“It wasn’t really for the home economics. It was because there were 30 girls in the class and I was the only guy."

It may be possible to have a conversation with Robert Irvine without marveling at his massive biceps, but alas, I was not up to the task.

“The camera adds a little bit more weight,” he says modestly, then adds, “I do have 21-inch biceps.”

By far the buffest chef on the Food Network’s roster, Irvine works out six day a week — light weights, but lots of reps — perhaps to compensate for all those meals out. He’s on the road 345 days a year, taping “Restaurant Impossible” and other TV spots, doing cooking demos and other live appearances and charitable events, and working the food festival circuit, including the Atlantic City Food and Wine Festival this weekend.

It’s a coming home of sorts for Irvine, 47, who spent eight years as chef at Trump Taj Mahal, Resorts and Caesars. His debut Food Network show, “Dinner Impossible,” was inspired by some of the tasks he faced feeding thousands on the fly there — although it’s safe to say he never before prepared a meal in a kitchen last equipped in the 18th century, or served a banquet in a hall made entirely of ice.

Irvine first starting cooking at age 11, when he took a home economics course in school in his native Wiltshire, England. “It wasn’t really for the home economics,” he says. “It was because there were 30 girls in the class and I was the only guy. After my first quiche Lorraine, it turned from being more into the girls to more into the food.”

He enlisted in the British Royal Navy four years later, where he worked as a chef aboard Her Majesty’s Royal Yacht Britannia, and later jumped to cruise ships and casinos.

He is now working on a new Food Network show, “Restaurant Express,” in which he puts chefs through their paces as they travel across America to compete for their own full-service restaurant, and he has taped six seasons of his makeover show “Restaurant Impossible,” which he is quick to distinguish from the more bombastic “Gordon Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares.”

“We spend two days, and it’s a real two days, only 36 hours, and a real $10,000, to transform people’s lives,” he says. “We actually change people’s lives, change their families’ lives, and put them back in good standing.”

The biggest stumbling block for restaurateurs, he says, is complacency.
“They’ve got the restaurant,” he says. “They don’t understand putting money back into it is going to help them be successful.”

The Atlantic City Food and Wine Festival kicks off tomorrow and runs through Sunday at various casino venues, with Irvine joined by Rocco Dispirito and Pat and Gina Neely. The signature event, the Grand Market, is set for Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Bally’s Grand Ballroom, where you can nibble and sip to your heart’s content ($55).

Other events include the Blues, Brews & BBQ on Saturday from noon to 3 p.m. ($75), with several barbecue vendors offering ribs, chicken and brisket at the Showboat’s House of Blues; a beach soiree with cocktails and passed appetizers with the star chefs Saturday from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. ($75) at Caesars Beach; and a luau hosted by the Neelys on Sunday from 6 to 9 p.m. ($125) at Harrah’s Resort pool deck. For tickets, go to caesars.com/foodandwine, or call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000.